After years of posting neglect, here are a couple of cards I made recently, with the Stampin' Up sets, Beauté Parisienne and Timeless Tropical. The white piece under the Eiffel Tower card is the envelope. I almost feel as though it weren't winter piled deep outside my windows.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

 The Nativity figures are up, snow has finally arrived, and I'm nearly ready for Christmas. I'll be spending it with my younger son in Montréal. We'll be Face Timing with my older son and family in South Carolina.










As you can see, the House Mouse mice are
on their way to a Christmas Eve celebration at church, braving a snowstorm, candles lighting their way.









Here's my Christmas card for you, with wishes for a beautiful Christmas, surrounded--even if from afar--by those you love.

Autumn Light

Autumn brings the beauty of pied colour, but also shortening days, morning frost and a change in the quality of sunlight. Even on a clear day, one senses the retreat of the sun in its diluted rays. Darkness comes too soon in the afternoon, and lingers too long in the morning.

In this northern city of Québec, the sun does get a bit of reinforcement on clear, sub-zero winter days, when its rays reflect off the snow, dazzling light-hungry eyes, giving the illusion of warmth. It is an illusion, but one that recalls the true warmth of summer, giving us a smile and a hope.

                                  

                                  Winter Hearts

                   

                             Winter hearts fear not

                             The death of leaves

                             Nor the prophecies

                             Of ice and snow.

                             Winter hearts believe

                             In Spring.

                                      Kathleen Chabot

Think Pink!

In November 1944, when my mother died of breast cancer at the age of 35, the diagnosis of any cancer was a death sentence. Treatments were experimental, and detection was almost always too late. If it was detected, the only way to deal with breast cancer was to remove the breast.

Great progress has been made in the treatment and detection of breast cancer, but there's still a lot of room for improvement in the detection and treatment, and prevention is a challenge.

House Mouse and Friends honours Breast Cancer Awareness Month with their new Challenge HMFMC205 "In the Pink", http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/in-pink-for-house-mouse-challenge.html

This card features Amanda--House Mouse Sweet Scent stamp--doing her best to help us adopt a Pink Attitude. She's coloured with Stamping Up watercolour crayons, applied with a Stampin' Up Aquapen. The sentiment is a digital image from CS Designs, lightly sponged with SU Blushing Bride ink. The pink layer is SU Blushing Bride card stock, dry-embossed with the SU folder, Elegant Bouquet (retired). The base is SU Whisper White thick card stock.

Who's Afraid of Ghosts, Goblins and Ghouls?

 In spite of their disguises, the House Mouse mice won't scare anyone. Sorry, guys!

I loved putting on a costume and Trick or Treating as much as the mice do. After supper was the best time; just dark enough to lend atmosphere and populate the neighbourhood with imagined ghosts and ghouls, but still safe for visibility. A cup of hot cocoa on my return was always a welcome accompaniment to my hoard of treats.

Years later, I relived Halloween memories as I accompanied my two sons from house to house. I had the chance to accompany my older granddaughters once--a special treat!

The three cards in this post were all made with House Mouse stamps. From top to bottom: Tweet Treats for All, Gettin' Spooky, and Incognito.

The yellow card stock on the first card was embossed with Branches with Leaves, by Ellison.The third card was reverse-masked to make the moon before it was stamped with Trees Backgrounder by Cornish Heritage Farms. Stampin' Up Night of Navy was then sponged over the image. The little ghostie was stamped and cut out before being added to the card with  Stampin' Dimensionals.

Watercolouring was done with Stampin' Up Watercolour Wonder crayons.

The third card will be entered in the Fall/Halloween/Anything Goes challenge at http://housemouse-challenge.blogspot.ca

On a Magic Carpet

It's time for another House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge, The subject is Bingo or Anything Goes. This card is for Bingo, and I chose the vertical middle squares; orange, yellow and green. The green is subtle, because the leaves have put on their autumn colours, and only a little summer green remains on the veins and the stem.

The stamp is House Mouse Floating on a Leaf, coloured with Stampin' Up watercolour crayons (retired, alas!); the background paper comes from my stash and has been there for ages, the base is discontinued Stampin' Up Marigold Morning.

I'm drawn to the House Mouse mice because of their irrepressible joy. They take delight in everything, and their--or rather Ellen Jarecki's--inventiveness in using everyday objects for mousy mischief and fun is inspiring. Their mischief is never harmful or mean, and they cherish their friends and each other. Here they're using a couple of leaves for a magic carpet. I think I'll grab that leaf stem and sail along with them. Want to join me?

Back to School...in the rain!

The new House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge is Back to School. A card or other project must feature any of the House Mouse & Friends, Gruffies, or Happy Hoppers, and Anything Goes is the alternate subject.



Maxwell, Monica, Mudpie, and Muzzy are on their way to the first day of school. They don't seem bothered by the deluge, semi-protected as they are by the last of the summer's flowers. Mudpie seems a little hesitant about getting his feet wet, while Monica is happily splashing, Muzzy is soaking his tail, and Maxwell is leaping from rock to rock.

The scene reminds me of my first days at kindergarten. My house was not far from school, so after a couple of days being accompanied by my Grandmother, I was to walk there and back--an adventure in itself--and had a shiny new pair of red rubber boots for rainy days. When the first rainy day came, I set out, joyfully splashing in every puddle I could find. I was later told I was to avoid the puddles, which totally boggled my mind, because I couldn't see the point of boots if one was to avoid puddles.

I remember, too, my two sons' back to school days. I always saw them off reluctantly, because it meant the end of more relaxed time together. They were a joy to be with, not perfect, but full of energy, ideas and thoughts that could surprise and amaze. To keep them entertained during family vacation trips, while my husband did the driving,  I made up stories, which the boys haven't forgotten.  It's not so much the stories themselves, I'm sure, which stay in their minds, but the feeling of the four of us being woven together by the magic of imagined worlds.

Rainy Days and Back to School, what treasured, bittersweet memories!

The card base is Stampin' Up Lovely Lilac, overlaid with SU Sheer Perfection Vellum. The stamp is House Mouse Rainy Daisy Day. To watercolour, I used various SU watercolour crayons, markers, and ink. I used Judikins Diamond Glaze on the raindrops.

Cat and Mouse Games

House Mouse stamps never fail to warm my heart and make me smile. Ellen Jareckie, the artist who designs the stamps, has created a little world of critters who are all friends. She has other lines of animal stamps, but the mice are my favourites.

Each mouse has a name and a personality. Mudpie, who's shaking the petals from the tree, is said to be lazy, and has a notched ear, due to his brother, Maxwell, mistaking his ear for a piece of cheese. Muzzy, who's enjoying the rain of perfumed petals, is fuzzy and has really long hair. The cat? The cat is a Friend. Only the mice have names.

There are several stamps with the mice interacting with cats, grooming them, giving them treats, bandaging a hurt paw. As one who loves animals, cats in particular, I love seeing cats and mice being friendly. The House Mouse world is an animal Garden of Eden, where mischief is often on the menu, but never a Friend or Mouse.

I made this card for the House Mouse and Friends Monday challenge HMFMC201. The current Monday challenge is Flower Power, or Anything Goes, as long as one of the House Mouse line of stamps is used. If you love the House Mouse critters, do check out the House Mouse and Friends blog.

Blossoming Friendship is the name of the stamp I used. I coloured it with Stampin' UP Water Color Wonder Crayons (retired) and Markers. The sky was sponged. It's an A2 (4 1/4"x5 1/2") size. Note: A base has been added to this card. It was originally a single-layer card, but I had neglected to note that the measurements of the stamp fit those of a 4"x5.25" layer, so I cut the extra bits and attached it to a 4.25x5.5 SU Blushing Bride base.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Stampin' Up Thick Whisper White card stock was used for the card base, the flowered layer is Stampin' Up Sheer Perfection Vellum, coloured on the reverse side with SU Summer Sun (retired) and Garden Green Markers. The Cornish Heritage Farms sentiment was stamped on the front with StazOn Tuxedo Black ink. The cage and bird stamps are from the retired SU set, Nature Walk.

This stamp set makes me think of Maya Angelou's 1969 autobiography,  "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings." The title drew me then and still does. What does the author know, what is her answer? On first reading that title, I suspected that the reason wouldn't be that the bird sings for joy. Her poem,  Caged Bird, gives the dark answer. The bird is a metaphor for the slave and for the freed slave struggling for basic rights. Freedom and rights are seldom gained without struggle and suffering.

The poem Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) also uses a caged bird as metaphor for the slaves of antebellum United States, and for their descendants who struggle for full recognition of their dignity as human beings. The poem contains the line, "I know why the caged bird sings, ah me". Dunbar was close to the experience of slavery; his parents had both been slaves in Kentucky, and he was born in the years when freed slaves and their children began the struggle to claim their place as full citizens.

These poems, different in style and voice, both express forcefully what those suffer who are treated as less than human. The images of cruelty and of longing for freedom strike to my heart and lead me to reflect on the dangers of treating any human life as inferior or without value. Human life, from the instant of conception to the moment of natural death, is priceless.

By the Sea

We're having a heat wave, which for Québec City, located on the St. Lawrence River, means lots of crushing humidity; 61% at this moment, and it's been higher. So I'm consuming lots of iced drinks, keeping the fans going--no air-conditioning, high heat doesn't last long enough--and as the sun comes around to peer through my NorthWest facing windows and balcony door, I close the blinds.

When I'm tempted to complain of the heat, I think of  winter snowbanks that reach my shoulder, and winds straight from the arctic. Doesn't make me feel cooler, but it puts things in perspective.

In addition to cool drinks, and appreciation of the moment,  I take virtual seaside vacations, via cards I make. Nothing relaxes me like the sound of waves rolling onto a beach, the sound of seagulls, and the remembered feeling of some days spent long ago on a beach in Corpus Christi, Texas, where I waded into the Gulf waters, forgetting sunscreen.

I can still feel fish brushing my legs, and see clearly the Ray flying past in the water ahead of me. I laugh again, thinking of waves crashing over me as I tried in vain to bodysurf. I also have a sharp memory of the pain of a never-again sunburn.

Every summer, I get out my favourite water-themed Stampin' Up stamp sets: Summer by the Sea, and Seaside Sketches, from which the images in today's cards are taken. I hope they help you relax a little, and think kindly of the fleeting summer days.

Summer

What does "summer" conjure up for you? Long, lazy days? Unbearable heat? Vacation with family? Picnics? No school? All of the above? When I hear "Summer", I sigh and go into relax mode.

Until I had spent a winter in Québec City, where I now live, I didn't appreciate summer. When it started warming up and the snow banks of that first long winter were almost gone, it was like coming out of hibernation. Suddenly, the sounds of children playing, dogs barking, neighbours calling out to each other drifted in through double windows opened for the first time since October. I took Summer for granted when I lived in Oklahoma.

Notice the orange leaves at the top of the trees on the card. As I enjoyed a cup of iced coffee on my balcony today, I noticed a nearby tree with a couple of orange leaves near its top. Autumn is announcing itself.

 I love Autumn here almost as much as Summer; cool mornings and evenings, warm days, a riot of colours, but winter arrives all too soon and for all too long.  I won't think of the short days to come, I'll concentrate on the last of the long days of Summer.

Roots

When I think of roots, I generally think of parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, ancestors, the generations of people whose DNA legacy I carry. But blood relatives are not the only contributors to the person I am today. Certainly, the grandparents, in whose nurturing home I grew up after the early death of my mother and absence of my father, taught me the values and morals I hold today.  Two uncles, really more brothers than uncles, also greatly influenced me. But a challenge on the Stamp Nation website to "make a card for a friend you haven't seen in awhile" made me reflect on friendship. 

Friends are definitely part of our roots, part of what makes us who we are. Friends help shape our character and influence our opinions and beliefs, even when we don't agree. How grateful I am for my first close friends, those I made in early childhood and during my teenage and college years. The closest of them are still in my life, even though we now live far apart. I'm grateful for my solid roots.

A Little Love Story

The third issue of the e-zine, Art With No Boundaries, Chris Stern, editor, came out yesterday. If you have had the experience of coming home with a new magazine or book and settling in with it and a cup of tea or coffee--or a glass of wine--feeling like a child on Christmas morning with a new toy, you know what it's like to dip into an issue of AWNB.  You'll find tutorials, inspiration, art by Chris Stern and her special guests.

Ah, did I mention that I'm in this issue! Talk about feeling like a child on Christmas morning! Here's a sneak peek, but you'll have to go here for a full view: http://artwithnoboundaries.blogspot.ca/

Stepping Inside the Box

Cards are my usual art form, but I've stepped outside the box--rather, into the box--to do something a little different. The Paper Craft Planet group, Graphics 45, had a Special Project for January;  make a book in a box, using Graphic 45 cardstock. This is what I came up with, using G45 Bird Song cs. 

Above, the front of the box. Below, the inside of the box without the book. The paper used on the inside of the box is the only non-G45 paper used.

 The open box with book inside.

Book opened, showing inside cover page and first page.

 Pages 2 & 3

 Pages 4 & 5

 Pages 6 & 7

 Page 8 and inside back cover.

 Back cover of the book.

Stamps used are Stampin' Up, Stampington, Limited Edition RS, and Serendipity.
I had posted a link here to the You Tube video with instructions for this book and box, but it has been removed.

Merry Christmas

I'm looking forward to spending Christmas and New Year's with my sons, daughter-in-law and granddaughters in South Carolina. To all who drop by here, I wish you joy now and throughout the New Year.

This is one of the cards I sent to friends and family. The stamp is by Inkadinkado, the ink is SU Night of Navy, cs is SU Night of Navy and Whisper White. Image outlined with silver pen.

Hope in the midst of sorrow

"An Expressive and Innovative Mixed Media Ezine for Paper Crafters, Collage and Assemblage Artists". This is part of the masthead for the first issue of the new e-zine, Art With No Boundaries, which was a blog until Chris Stern, its creator, decided to expand its possibilities. Follow the link http://artwithnoboundaries.blogspot.ca/ to see the creative digital and other art on the site, created by Chris and guest designers.

I know many of you, as am I, are still shaken and saddened by the massacre at the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school last Friday. Prayer can soothe and give hope to our hearts, and so can beautiful, cheerful art. I hope a visit to Art With No Boundaries will give a lift to your heart.

Loss of Innocents

I have heard about the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday, watched the reports this morning, and find it difficult to express my feelings.  Tragedies like this leave us numb.  In thinking of the parents who've lost little ones, I remember that my grandmother and grandfather never got over the loss of my mother, who died of cancer at the age of 35. I still feel her loss, too.

I also remember friends whose first child was a son the same age as my younger son. They lived in a high rise near Ottawa, Ontario, on the 11th floor, and lost their son, barely a year old, when a badly installed floor-to-ceiling screen detached while he was looking down at the traffic. I still feel horror and sorrow at the thought of his mom racing down to his broken little body. The couple visited us when Marc was 15, and by the way they talked to him, questioned him about his life, I could tell they were thinking, "Our son would be doing similar things..."

In an interview, the priest of the Catholic Church in New Town said that some parents had told him they were comforted just by his being with them. From my personal experience, I know that the mere presence of loving friends and family can be more comforting than words.

In such times, it also comforts me to know that God always brings good out of evil, and never allows us to endure more than we can bear, even though at the time it might not seem like it. One good thing I can think of now is that thousands, probably millions, of people all over the world are praying for the families, which will benefit not only the families, but those who pray as well.

This tragedy, coming at Christmas time, also makes me think of the Holy Innocents, who died in place of Christ, when Herod sent soldiers to seek and kill him. I heard several people on TV express regret at the possibilities never to be fulfilled by those 20 little ones. This is a thought I always have when thinking of the victims of abortion, especially survivors of abortion, often then left alone until they die, without sustenance or comfort.

I also thought this morning of my high school-aged granddaughters, and of my son  who teaches in a Montréal CEGEP--roughly equivalent to a US Junior College. We've had tragic shootings in schools in Québec, and this morning, I realized that he, too, is vulnerable.

My prayers and thoughts are with all those who will find joy difficult this Christmas season.

Witchery!

The top card was made for the October challenge on Art With No Boundaries http://artwithnoboundaries.blogspot.ca/
The images were made with the digital stamp "Haunting Apparition I, Psychosis" by CS Designs. The ghost bats are PSX, the sentiment from Inkadinkadoo. "Psychosis" was printed on coloured paper. I hope she likes the three different looks this gives her, I don't want to think of her reaction if she's not pleased!
The second card was entered in a challenge from a new Paper Craft Planet group, Graphic 45. http://www.papercraftplanet.com/group/graphics-45-fans The challenge is to make something using--surprise--paper from Graphic 45. The background uses double-sided card stock from Halloween in Wonderland. The witch and sentiment are from Inkadinkadoo, the houses are from SU Home is Where the Haunt is. The bats were made with the SU Itty Bitty Bat punch. I CASED Michelle Zindorf's wonderful tutorial #125, A Witchy Night. http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/09/29/a-witchie-night-tutorial-125/ I used a house instead of trees. 

Fall and other delights

I haven't blogged in awhile, but I have been stamping.  I find Autumn an inspiring time, with its joyful colors, it's mix of cold mornings and evenings and summer in between the two. It's a season to celebrate--but then, every season is worth celebrating.

The first card was inspired by a Gina K tutorial http://stamptv.ning.com/video/versamark-resist-background

I didn't have the stamp, ink--except the Versamark used on the background--or the sentiment Gina K used on her card, but I enjoyed the challenge of finding substitutes. The flower stamp is a freebie from the British magazine, Craft Stamper, the sentiment is from the SU set, Wonderful Words. I've done Versamark backgrounds, but learned something new in Gina's tutorial; pigment ink can erase the Versamark! I used chalk, since the ink I was going to use, SU Creamy Caramel, is the Craft (pigment) version.

I used my House Mouse stamps for the next four cards. I just love these mischievous little mice!
The background on the Trick or Treat card is patterned paper, and I used SU Watercolor Wonder crayons with my SU Aqua Painter. The sentiment is from the Inkadinkado "All Hallow's Eve" set. The bats were made with the SU Itty Bitty Bat punch.

The leaves on the Flying by card were cut from a vellum page, the geese are PSX, the mice are HM, and I Cuttlebugged the strip of cs on the left of the card.

The third HM card was done for a layout challenge--stamps are HM, SU and PSX.

I used SU Fresh Fruit and House Mouse stamps on the last card. I hope Monica doesn't mind that I substituted a lime slice for her perfume atomizer. I'm sure she'll find something to do with the slice.

Argonauta

 I run to the beach at dawn
To discover what prize
The sea’s given up.
Just beyond reach of galloping waves
Lies a slim, white, riffled case,
It’s mariner gone.
Waves tease my toes,
A breeze fingers my hair,
I think of my own
Brave Argonauts.
       Kathleen Chabot
       17/04/1990

 I was thinking of my two sons when I wrote this poem. The older one was married later that year, and I'm happy to report that he, his wife and two daughters are thriving. Son #2 is also doing well. Both sons are doing work they love.


I got so carried away with making waves on this card that I didn't notice I had the lady writing in the water. I suspect she's the type who will hope even if the waves wash her writing away. The clouds are bigger than I wanted them, and my photograph of the card is not very good, but then, life is often less than perfect. That's why we need hope.

Details of the card:

Card stock;  SU Brilliant Blue, Shimmery White,
Ink; SU Basic Black, Blue Spectrum pad, Color Box Cocoa
Stamps; SU Seaside Sketches, Wonderful Words II, Itty BittyBackgrounds
Image watercolored with Watercolor Wonder Crayons and was masked while I sponged the ocean waves, stamped and sponged the sand, and put clouds in the sky.